Leveraging pharmacies to expand vaccination pathways and deliver immunisation for all was the topic presented by FIP’s lead for practice development and transformation, Gonçalo Sousa Pinto, at the World Congress on Public Health in Rome, Italy, last week.

“Pharmacists significantly contributed to bringing the [COVID] pandemic under control through a variety of roles, including vaccination services. But vaccination coverage rates for other respiratory diseases like influenza or pneumococcal pneumonia remain suboptimal. It is vital to protect and further expand the advancements in terms of pharmacists' scope of practice, to achieve equitable vaccination coverage and community protection, leaving no-one behind,” Mr Sousa Pinto told participants at a session organised by the Immunisation For All Ages initiative.